The present invention relates to dispensers, and in particular to dispensers for dispensing cleaning and/or freshening chemicals into toilet bowl water from a dispenser mounted adjacent the rim of a toilet bowl.
Toilet bowls require care to prevent the buildup of unsightly deposits, to reduce odors and to prevent bacteria growth. Traditionally, toilet bowls have been cleaned, deodorized and/or disinfected by manual scrubbing with a liquid or powdered cleaning/sanitizing agent that is added to the bowl water by hand. This task has required manual labor to keep the toilet bowl clean.
In order to reduce or in some cases eliminate the need for such manual scrubbing, various automatic toilet bowl cleaning systems have been proposed. One type of system delivers the cleaning chemical by adding it to the flush water while the flush water is still stored in the toilet tank. Some embodiments of this type of system add the chemical in sequence to the flushing cycle in liquid form. Others place a block of cleaning chemical in the toilet tank, to slowly dissolve over several weeks or longer.
However, a system which relies on adding the chemical to the storage tank typically requires the consumer to lift a tank lid in order to install the device and/or to add a new charge/block of cleaning chemical. Also, for some of the embodiments of this system precise control over the quantity of chemical to be delivered is difficult, with resulting waste of cleaning chemical or inadequate cleaning. Further, when the chemical is placed in the storage tank the cleaning chemical must be compatible for long-term contact with some of the valving present in the toilet tank, which may impose some limitations on formulation.
An alternative type of system hangs a dispenser adjacent and/or immediately under the toilet bowl rim. Water flowing from the rim will wash over the dispenser, thereby triggering dispensing of the stored chemical directly into the bowl water. Examples of this type of system include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,178,564, 6,311,340 and 6,412,120.
While this latter type of system is becoming increasingly popular, there are some disadvantages associated with current products that embody this approach. One disadvantage is that some of these devices use a hook that extends over the top (and usually to some extent an outside side wall) of the toilet bowl rim to mount the device. While the toilet seat will hide this when the seat is down, when the toilet seat is picked up (e.g. for a male to urinate), the device will be visible.
In any event, the presence of the device must be taken into account when cleaning the upper area of the toilet bowl rim. For example, one might need to slide or remove the device during cleaning.
Further complicating matters is that the designs of toilet bowl rims vary widely between manufacturers, and even between different models of a single manufacturer. Apart from differences in width and height, some toilet bowl rims are essentially completely open at the bottom. See e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,448. Others are largely closed at the bottom to form a box-like cross section conduit, with the bottom of the box having a series of relatively small drain holes. See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,359,735 and 1,815,197.
Some holders that are suitable to mount a dispenser under the rim by a prong that is extendable into a small rim drain hole (see e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,202,822, 1,974,955, 1,979,755, 2,214,798, and 3,736,600) are generally unsuitable for mounting that same device under an open bottom rim like that of U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,448. Hence, such a product would typically be sold with a label that advises consumers to check the type of toilet rim they have before buying. Since many consumers aren't readily aware of that information, that creates a marketing impediment which may lead a consumer to select a system that provides the chemical to the tank directly (rather than mounts under the bowl rim).
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/435,359, filed May 9, 2003, our company described mounting a toilet bowl cleaner dispenser directly under an open bottom style rim, without the need for a hook that extends over the top of the rim and along the outside of the rim. Our company described that a vertical support could instead extend up from the dispenser directly into the lower side of the rim, the support being connected to a resilient arm that extended sideways and downward across the rim interior, at an angle. The flexibility of the arm adjusted for open bottom rims of varying widths. Frictional contact between the arm and the rim interior held the dispenser in place.
That application also disclosed that by making the flexible arm sufficiently flexible and small it could be pressed against the support so that both could pass together part way into holes in toilets having rims with bottom walls having such holes. However, if the rim was dimensioned too tall, such an arm could pass all the way into the rim and catch in place inside the rim, making removal difficult. If instead the rim hole was too small, the arm plus support might not fit into it at all. Finally, even if the device was properly sized for the rim, the plastic had to be specially shaped to prevent the device from too easily being pulled out from the rim.
Hence, a need still existed for improved under-the-rim type toilet bowl cleaner dispensers, particularly those that can be mounted into a variety of toilet bowl rims, yet do so in a manner in which the dispenser is largely or entirely hidden from the consumer during use.